AI cameras to be tested at Cannes Film Festival ahead of Paris Olympics

Security using artificial intelligence is being deployed at the Cannes Film Festival in a test for potential applications at the Paris Olympics two months later.

A large canvas of the official 77th Cannes Film Festival poster, which pays tribute to Japanese master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and his late career feature 'Rhapsody in August', is set up on the facade of the festival palace ahead of the festival's opening ceremony, in Cannes, France, May 12, 2024. REUTERS - Clodagh Kilcoyne

Some 40,000 attendees - and some of the world's biggest movie stars - fly into the French Riviera for the Cannes film festival from Tuesday to 25 May.

Local authorities say they are using 17 experimental cameras equipped with AI technology that are supposed to "identify events or behaviours deemed suspicious" and help detect abandoned packages, weapons and people in distress.

The Cannes town hall has been asking to implement them since 2019 but has only been given permission thanks to changes in surveillance laws introduced for the Olympics that kick off in Paris in July, according to mayor David Lisnard.

He said the town already had the "densest video protection network in France", with 884 cameras, one for every 84 residents.

• France approves algorithmic video surveillance to safeguard Olympics

Cannes also has 462 emergency call buttons spread across public spaces and buildings.

There were concerns that mobilisation for the Olympics would deprive the festival of police resources.

But Paris authorities say they are sending some 400 security forces in addition to the 200 officers and 66 surveillance agents already in Cannes.

The festival has a further 400 security guards around the main venue, the Palais des Festivals - not to mention the many private security agents employed at all the beach, villa and yacht parties.

(with AFP)